Tears
by DarkBlue1292
Summary: Loki is not as old as the Avengers assumed. Here on Earth, he is merely a teenager. A teenager who has gone through way too much. WARNING: mentions of past Mpreg, past rape, past torture and death.
1. Chapter 1

Tony looked over at the chained prisoner and asked a question that had been on his mind for quite a while.

"Hey Thor, how old is Frostbite over here?"

Thor turned to look at Tony with a thoughtful look on his face. "On Asgard, he is 3,441 years old. Why?"

Tony shook his head and chuckled at the helpfulness of that answer. "No. I meant how old is he in human years?"

By now, the other conversations had stopped. They were curious to hear Thor's answer. Now that they thought about it, he did look a little young. But then again, it was Asgard. The aging was different there so it probably wasn't too bad.

"Oh. That's different. I really don't know. Loki is the one who knows. He tried to explain it to me once but it was very complicated. I would imagine him to be about fifteen years old. He may be sixteen though. My knowledge of human years is not very significant."

At that, the entire glider quiets. The only sound is the hum of the engines as they fly to the helicarrier.

The Avenger's individual reactions varied but all were enraged. Tony's hands are clenched together into fists as he narrows his eyes accusingly at Thor. Clint's hands are gripping his bow tightly and as fast as Thor's lightning there is as arrow notched in it. Though it isn't pointing at anyone yet, the warning is clear. Natasha is breathing deeply and recalling her interrogation with Loki. He had knowledge of the worst kind of torture. When your loved ones are hurt, maimed, killed because of you. No child should have to experience that. Steve's hands are wrapped around his metal seat. The whine of steel ripping apart breaks the silence that had descended. That was when everyone noticed the alarming shade of green Bruce was turning. He glanced up with green Hulk was angry at the treatment of Loki and he was not going to let it go. Loki stared at each of the Avengers individually looking equal parts scared and confused.

The sound of shredding clothes was the only one as the Hulk remained just as still and in the same sitting position as Bruce. He stood and walked over to Loki.

"Puny god." He picked up Loki gently, breaking the iron chains with a sweep of his hand as if they were inconsequential. To him, they were. He cradled the squirming teenager to his chest more gently then the team thought possible.

Quite suddenly, the Hulk roared furiously and stomped over to Tony, leaving huge footprints in the supposedly Hulk-proof metal. He held out Loki as Tony looked first at the young god and then at the green mass of muscle.

"What is it, bud? I can't guess what you want." The Hulk shook his head with as much of a sheepish expression as he could muster. He pointed at Loki's muzzle.

"You want me to get that off him?"

At the Hulk's nod, Tony deftly grabbed one of Natasha's spare knives. Loki flinched at the sight of the knife, but Tony ignored the movement and began to saw at the black strap holding the metal contraption in place at the back of Loki's neck. He grunted in frustration when it wouldn't come off.

Thor watched in puzzlement at the events happening around him. "Why are you releasing him? If you are worried that the All-father will not punish Loki, it is quite alright. He will always stand by his punishments. Once, Narfi, the only child Loki has sired, tried to interfere but the All-father chained Loki with Narfi's entrails." Upon noticing the other's horrified gazes he assumed that more information would ease their minds.

"Loki had Narfi with Lady Sigyn whom Father married Loki too in an effort to prevent anymore monstrosities be brought into this world. He is known as the Mother of Monsters. In any case, Narfi is in Helheim with his sister. None of the other children Loki birthed will interfere or even have the ability. Sleipnir is the only one that the All-father deemed of use and even then, only the All-father himself may ride him. The others are either banished, chained or set to impossible tasks to occupy them." Thor tried to look reassuring despite his confusion.

Abruptly, Natasha stands and strides over to the god. "Are you telling me that all of our myths are true? Loki is married? Has he had his mouth sewn shut? He has been tortured? Raped? He has watched his own children be torn away from him to be killed or exiled? He has watched one of his children _die_ for him?And he is nothing more than a child himself?"

Hulk watched Loki worriedly. He had stopped squirming and protesting. He simply sat with a blank look on his face as tears streamed down his cheeks. He pulled Loki closer to his chest bridal style while murmuring nonsense in a soothing tone

Tony finally manages to spit out the first words in the silence that meets that statement. "Anyone else feeling sick?"

Natasha took a step back and said in a voice colder than Jotunheim itself,"You are not touching that child again."

At Thor's move to speak, his face twisting with shock, she slashes her hand through the air to demand silence. Every inch of her form was thrumming with carefully contained violence.

"QUIET. Loki said things that no child should understand so intimately. He spoke in great detail of rape as if it were a reasonable tool. He talked of people looking on as I was degraded and tortured. He speaks with intimate knowledge and all the rage and pain in his eyes of having experienced it- all while he himself is still a CHILD."

"You are deceived by his appearance. Loki is well over three thousand years-"

A fluttering of half forgotten knowledge, the changes in the body and mind as someone aged. It was not years alone that made an adult. She roared over the thunderer's words, "He is still A CHILD!"

Natasha's voice had raised to the point where she was all but yelling before she took a deep breath and hissed it back out before continuing in that coldly even tone she had been speaking in before her loss of control. Her hands rested on her weapons as she held Thor's gaze with so fierce an expression that even Sif at her angriest seemed almost sweet in comparison.

"I do not enter situations without reading anything that might help me understand my target. Those Myths, legends, were horrifying on paper. To hear them. Even worse, to hear the detail that Narfi was trying to save his young father, I have not words enough to express my disgust in your people's treatment of this child." Natasha took another shuddering breath, the quiver of need to do something reflected perfectly in Clint, despite the continued silence from her longtime partner.

She continued as she advanced a single step and Thor shifted a half step back in unconscious response to her. "Even to an adult what you have described is enough to drive a person completely mad. Wrapping a person in the intestines of their child is the type of madness that even Hitler would pause before approving."

Steve's breath caught on a silent horrified cry for what he remembered of Norse myths from his own childhood. The mention of Hitler had his eyes wide and filled with the pained rage leftover from the recent, for him, memory of the reels and reports of Auchwitz just months before that fateful last mission. His eyes locked with horror on the being wrapped protectively in the Hulk's arms.

He couldn't stop seeing it now that he knew.

How Loki was mostly skin and bones, how worn and scared he looked. He wasn't even old enough to ENLIST by human standards- and if even half of the myths Steve remembered were real- Steve never got to punch the real Hitler, but if he had even a thousandth of a chance to punch Odin, he was going to take it.

Steve did not wipe away the tear that escaped his eye as he blinked fiercely. "I will KILL anyone that tries to take Loki back to THAT." He managed to grind out past the lump in his throat.

It was obvious how disturbed Tony was that he not only declined to comment on Steve's violent threat, but he nodded along and added "The research lab in Malibu had some theoretical work I was going to use on future upgrades. I can probably incorporate the readings from the Stark tower fight to match the data and calibrate for the energy Thor and Loki showed, we can manufacture a better defense by the end of the week. Jesus Christ."

Thor again started to speak but the growl from Natasha, Tony and Clint stopped him as he gazed at them all with bewilderment. "We will talk on this after landing then." He finally said as a peace offering. It was met with nothing like peace as Clint and Natasha both said "Oh, you can count on that."

The quiet in the glider's cargo hold over the next few moments was only broken by the breathing of it's occupants and the Hulk's quiet murmurings to a tearful, overwhelmed Loki.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time, the glider landed on the helicarrier the cargo hold was filled to the brim with tension. It seemed a if it would explode. With the various powers and skill sets the individuals had in that confined place, it very well might. Director Fury and Agent Hill watched as the Avengers silently filed off the ship, one by one. Apparently all looked as it should to them until the Hulk walked off. Hill immediately pulled out her gun and held it before her. Fury for his part only stiffened slightly. Against the might of the Hulk, it took them several seconds to even notice the shivering black bundle the Hulk clutched tightly, as if fearing it would be taken from him. Fury addressed the issue first.

"Will someone explain to me why **Loki**, public enemy number one, is being carried by the **Hulk**?"

"Let's get straight to the point. We, the earth's defenders and the team you put together, just showed up on your doorstep with a problem and unless you want the Avengers to make a very public statement regarding how useful SHIELD is, how useful it will be, and their opinions on the need of it or lack thereof to change drastically in the next few minutes I suggest you listen, pay attention, and answer every fucking question I'm about to ask you with complete honesty." An unspoken threat hung ominously in the air at the end of that sentence. And Tony being Tony, he had too add just a little something. "Not only that, but you may wake up with a bedazzled eyepatch." Small smirks and snickers were heard from the rest of the Avengers. tony had always had a talent for cracking the tension.

Fury maintained his stoic demeanor and stared hard at them through his one eye, almost as if he were trying to make up for only being able go glare with one. "And what exactly is this issue Mr. Stark?"

"Are you aware of Loki's age?"

"He is 3,441 years old. Of course I am. I know more about him than any of the files I gave you even hinted at."

"Then you know that Loki is, in human terms, still a child."

"I am aware."

"And you did not think it would be important for us to know that we're dealing with a SEVERELY traumatized teenager?"

"I did not. You capture him, bring him back, and let Odin deal with him."

"This is not just teenage rebellion. All those myths are TRUE. You know what? I have decided. He's not going back to Asgard. Period. I'll bring him to the tower. Jarvis? Set up a floor for him. Hulk? Come on. Bring Loki."

Hulk followed Tony, still murmuring soothingly to Loki. By this point, Loki had stopped struggling. There was no point. He could try to escape the Hulk's hold, but it would only ever be feeble attempts. Escaping the Hulk's hold was right up there on the list of impossible things with Captain America being impolite. Besides the Hulk was on his side and let's just say the Hulk has some sway on what just about anybody thinks.

All the Avengers followed Tony, surrounding Loki and the Hulk in an organic and adapting shield. Loki was more grateful to the mortals than he would have thought possible a century ago. Slowly, exhausted from the days events and trusting in the Hulk if no others, he drifted off to a fitful sleep.

Once the Avengers were out of earshot Agent Hill turned to Director Fury and said. "It worked, Sir. It really worked."


End file.
